Unemployment rump not simple problem

The Prime Minister says the Government is open to different ways of tackling the problems of long term unemployment.

Helen Clark says Labour won't support Maori Party co-leader Pita Sharples' call for a return to work for the dole schemes, because they don't work.

But she says the issue now that unemployment is lower than it's been for a generation, is what to do with the really hard core jobless.

“And when you get into it, some of the folk as Pita will know have got problems with drugs, they’ve problems with alcohol, problems with obesity which make a lot of forms of work impractical, may have had issues with the law, may have lost their driving licence, they have multiple problems, and that is where you would find the Department of Work and Income would be active on the case,” Ms Clark says.

She says Work and Income will work with community groups including urban Maori and iwi organisations to address employment issues.

JONES CHARTS HIGHS, LOWS OF FISH JOB

Shane Jones's 14 year run helping set the direction for Maori fisheries is coming to an end.

Mr Jones will announce his resignation as chair of Te Ohu Kaimoana at the fisheries settlement trust's annual meeting on Friday.

It fulfils a promise he made when he entered Parliament on the Labour Party list last election.

Mr Jones was appointed to what was then the Treaty of Waitangi Fisheries Commission in 1993, and succeeded Ngai Tahu's Sir Tipene O'Regan as chairperson in 2000.

He says he learned a huge amount about politics, business and people in a job which had highs and lows.

“The low point was having my house raided by the police who were given a search warrant by a Lower Hutt judge. Of course they found nothing that would incriminate me, and it was at that point that I knew that I would be the chairman, because whoever the forcer were that were against me, they’d sunk to an abysmal low,” Mr Jones says.

He says the high point was the passage of the Maori Fisheries Act in 2004, which allowed Te Ohu Kaimoana to start putting fisheries settlement assets in the hands of the tribes.

REPATRIATION NEGOTIATIONS DELICATE

Te Papa Tongarewa kaihautu Te Taru White says negotiating with overseas institutions to return Maori taonga can be tricky.

Nine toi moko or preserved heads are on their way back to the Museum of New Zealand from Aberdeen University's Marischal Museum in Scotland.

Mr White says it took intensive negotiations to get the the heads back.
He says museums worldwide are wary about allowing material out of their collections, and there is no way New Zealand can demand taonga back.

“Point blank, those museums have the power to say yes or no. That’s it. And the only way you’re going to keep the door open is to move in very gently and mirimiri (massage) them a little, sensitise them, to a moral sense of the return, that this is a good thing for them to do,” Mr White says.

The nine toi moko and their couriers will be welcomed back to Te Papa at nine on Monday morning.

WRONG FLAG REQUESTED FOR BRIDGE

Ngapuhi kaumatua Kingi Taurua says sovereignty activists have tried to get the wrong flag flown from the Auckland Harbour Bridge.

Transit New Zealand has turned down a request to fly the black red and white Maori flag from the bridge on Waitangi Day.

That flag was adopted as a symbol of Maori sovereignty after it won a competition run by the Kawariki protest group in the early 1990s.

Mr Taurua, who is organising next week's hui on Waitangi's lower Te Tii Marae, says the white ensign adopted by the Confederation United Tribes in 1834 is the one that should be flown.

“And the flag really represents our tino rangatiratanga and our sovereignty over this country, and that’s the flag they should be thinking of flying,” Mr Taurua says.

The white ensign is associated with the 1835 Declaration of Independence, which laid the ground for the Treaty of Waitangi.

MANUREWA MAKES URBAN DIY

South Auckland's Manurewa Marae will be the first urban marae to get a makeover on Maori Television's Marae DIY show.

Marae chairperson Eru Thompson says the marae services a region boasting the highest concentration of Maori in the country.

He says the project has rekindled enthusiasm in the community for the marae, which overlooks the Manukau Harbour.

“Quite a few members of our whanau had left the marae over the last few years, and it was a way of bringing them all back,” Mr Thompson says.

The main change will be to resite the paepae where the speakers sit to give an unimpeded view between the kaikaranga and those gathered at the waharoa or gateway.

ROTORUA GETS OWN LABEL

It's a city renowned for its Maori musical talent, but Rotorua has never had its own record label.

Now, 80 years after Parlophone first recorded Ana Hato and Deane Waretini, comes Kanohi Records.

Managing director Roger Cunningham says there is no reason the next Maori sound to make an impact internationally can't come from the sulphur city.

Mr Cunningham says Rotorua has some of the most seasoned entertainers in the counrty, but they needed an outlet,,

"Recording the waiata hasn’t been too much of a prioblem. It’s been a challenge in itself, but now that the technology’s around there are so many home studios and production studios around. What is I feel is the problem in our rohe is actually providing the interface into the industry,” Mr Cunningham says.

Kahohi has three albums ready for release, with an emphasis on high quality contemporary waiata in te reo Maori.